Yannis Papanikolaou
International Centre for Black Sea Studies (I.C.B.S.S.)
Athens
Greece
Extended abstract
The essence of sustainable development concerns global development that permits present generations to meet their own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy theirs. The term “sustainable development”, first introduced in the mid ‘80s, acquired after the 2002 Johannesburg Summit a broader vision, comprising four pillars: the environmental, economic, social and scientific dimensions.
Environmental sustainability should be today a vital orientation for the governments
of the Black Sea region. Adequate policies in this direction – environmental
protection, pollution eradication, sound management of natural resources and
transformation of consumption and production patterns towards greater efficiency
– can stop environmental deterioration and ensure a higher quality of
life for the local populations. Meanwhile, by promoting the social, economic
and scientific dimensions of sustainable development, along with environmental
sustainability, we can create a geopolitical space that will be prosperous,
secure and attractive to foreign investors.
The region covered by the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
(BSEC) – comprising Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece,
Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine – has a rich and diverse
natural environment. Sadly however, the Black Sea environment has been heavily
affected by natural and man-made disasters, as well as by the process of economic
development and rapid industrialization in the second half of the 20th century.
The Black Sea itself is widely considered as the most contaminated sea in our planet. Pollution originates mainly from large rivers carrying the remains of fertilizers, hazardous and inadequately treated industrial and municipal wastes across Western and Eastern Europe and the CIS, as well as from the heavy oil tanker traffic across the sea and the tourist development of the coast. Pollution has taken a heavy toll on the biodiversity of the Black Sea, the quality of water, fishing activity, tourism and quality of life in littoral areas.
Besides, one should not forget that in 1986 the BSEC region became the stage for the worst nuclear accident in history, when one of the reactors of the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. This tragic event caused contamination of large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and raised concerns about the safety of nuclear power production both in the then Soviet Union and in several East European countries.
After the end of the Cold War, the Black Sea region experienced serious local and ethnic conflicts, which were exacerbated by the discrepancy of territorial and ethnic borders. These conflicts, accompanying the emergence of new states and borders, have had their share in environmental deterioration. Contamination of natural resources has risen in war-torn areas and has also affected neighboring countries, since pollution is a trans-border problem.
Meanwhile, conflicts and economic problems created a tide of refugees and economic migrants. Living in temporary settlements, with inadequate sanitation, limited access to medical care, and lack of clean water and food, refugees and displaced people have become, against their will, the conduit for the proliferation of infectious diseases within their countries and abroad.
Unfortunately environmental sustainability is far from being a governmental priority in the BSEC region and there is no serious coordination of national environmental policies at the regional level. Developing cross-border cooperation to stop further environmental deterioration is a hot potato even for developed countries, due to the high economic cost that it entails, let alone transition countries which lack the financial resources and face problems of macroeconomic stability.
There remains much to be done towards achieving sustainable development in the economic, social and scientific spheres too. With the exception of Greece and Turkey, BSEC Member States are in the process of transition to market economies. Economic transition, following a “shock therapy” or a more gradual approach, has led to a rise in prices, closure of unprofitable state enterprises, fall in production and trade, and high levels of unemployment. Therefore, the transition process has been accompanied by a painful drop in living standards for the majority of the population. Rising poverty and social exclusion has particularly afflicted certain population categories, such as minorities, migrants and refugees, women and young people.
Meanwhile, the imminent eastward enlargement of the EU threatens to draw new dividing lines in the European continent between future EU members and countries which have been excluded from the current enlargement process. Existing problems in the entire European continent – illegal migration, organized crime, human trafficking, corruption, local and ethnic conflicts – will be perpetuated, unless non-EU members are successfully integrated into European structures.
With reference to the scientific pillar of sustainable development, it is worth mentioning that today the valuable scientific and technological potential of the BSEC region is left largely unused. However, many BSEC Member States have developed comparative advantages in certain S&T fields. The National Academies of Sciences in the republics of the former Soviet Union had developed collaboration among themselves under the guidance of the Soviet Academy of Science. The great size and impressive scientific potential of certain BSEC Member States, which today may seem irrational especially in some small countries, reflects the fact they were meant to serve the entire Soviet Union. Besides, hundreds of thousands of scientists working today in numerous research centres and producing valuable research results, are faced with the lack of necessary financing and experience in market economy conditions for translating research ideas into concrete projects and marketing them to possible end users. Moreover, the limited public financing allocated to research and the low wages of scientists are continuously driving the best minds to abandon the BSEC region.
The potential of the ICBSS towards environmental sustainability
Shortly after the end of the cold war, regional cooperation emerged as an important means of securing stability, of dealing with the problems of economic transition and promoting integration into the European economic and security structures. The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) was established in 1992 by the governments of the eleven founding Member States. Within a decade, the BSEC developed into a relatively mature regional economic organization, with a broad and comprehensive institutional basis.
Upon the initiative of Greece, the countries of the BSEC established in Athens in 1998 the International Center for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS) with the aim of promoting academic cooperation among BSEC Member States. The ICBSS is a Greek legal entity and is financed by the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It functions as an international centre in the framework of the BSEC and is directed by an international Board of Directors. In 2002 the Ministerial Council of the BSEC recognized the ICBSS as a facilitator of academic cooperation and a de facto “related body”, granting it similar status as the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB), the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly (PABSEC) and the Black Sea Business Council.
The ICBSS acts in a triple capacity:The ICBSS has a comparative advantage in the field of sustainable development, vis-à-vis other more specialized centres, because it can develop projects and coordinate activities that have an effect on all four pillars of sustainable development. All the activities of the ICBSS in the framework of the implementation of the BSEC Economic Agenda for the future – a collective regional strategy for the BSEC Member States for achieving sustainable development based on regional and national comparative advantages – promote, directly or indirectly, the environmental sustainability of the Black Sea region.
The direct contribution of the ICBSS to environmental sustainability has been firstly in the form of creating necessary institutional structures within the BSEC for the promotion of this dimension of sustainable development. One of these initiatives is the International Centre on Water Research in Kyiv, under the aegis of the Dumansky Institute of Colloid Chemistry of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, which was inaugurated in November 2001 and hopefully will start functioning in 2003. The ICBSS has contributed significantly to its establishment, believing that the supply of fresh water for agriculture, industry and domestic use has become one of the most pressing problems of the 21st century.
Another valuable initiative is the creation of the Association of Seismic Protection (ASPBSEC), undertaken in collaboration with the Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (EPPO) of the Hellenic Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works. The Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (ITSAK) in Thessaloniki has been selected to house the International Secretariat of this Association.
Other initiatives include the workshop on “Solubility Phenomena – Application for Environmental Improvement” (Varna, July 2002), co-organized by the ICBSS and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The results of this workshop have enhanced our knowledge of the chemical contamination of the soil and water of the Black Sea basin.
Moreover, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and the ICBSS have elaborated a publication on “Europe’s Black Sea Dimension”. This publication examines, inter alia, the symptoms of environmental degradation in the Black Sea, the attempts made so far to take international action for its protection and the prospects for a more effective regional cooperation.
The ICBSS occasionally receives and examines research proposals on various fields, including environmental sustainability. A relevant proposal has been forwarded by the Institute of High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences and concerns the development of joint action in the field of treating industrial, municipal and other waste.
The National Director of Bulgaria to the ICBSS Board of Directors, Mr. Christo
Balarew, has also submitted to the ICBSS a proposal for a research project called
“Clean Black Sea”. This project aims at supporting the natural self-cleaning
ability of the Black Sea by encouraging BSEC Member States and other European
countries to minimize the discharge of pollution into the Black Sea.
Apart from initiatives making a direct contribution to environmental sustainability,
the ICBSS has also taken initiatives which help to create a general framework
for developing joint actions at the regional level, which could eventually promote
environmental sustainability in the Black Sea area.
A great opportunity to this end is offered by the participation of the BSEC Member States in the EU Sixth Framework Programme of cooperation in science and technology (FP6), which includes, inter alia, a thematic priority area on “Sustainable development, global change and ecosystems”. The ICBSS has initiated close cooperation with the Secretariat of Science and Technology of the Hellenic Ministry of Development in order to promote and facilitate the financing of scientific projects from the BSEC region. The ICBSS is planning to create national contact points in each BSEC Member State to provide information about financing opportunities under the FP6, as well to offer assistance and guidance for the elaboration of successful and competitive proposals. The ICBSS is also considering to “adopt” certain well-founded and viable research proposals, in order to improve their content and presentation and increase their possibility to receive financing from the FP6.
In the same spirit of accelerating the pace of technological innovation in the BSEC region, the ICBSS has been working towards the establishment of the BSEC Centre on Innovation Technology. This Centre will initially contribute to developing research and technological cooperation among BSEC Member States and countries of the West, and will promote the commercial utilization of domestic innovations. Both the Innovation Centre and the FP6 will contribute to the creation of a unified research space in Europe and will hopefully help to reduce “brain drain” in the BSEC region.
As mentioned above, today the impressive scientific and technological potential and comparative advantages of the BSEC Member States are to a great extent left unused. The intensification, and in many cases re-establishment, of regional academic collaboration among BSEC Member States at the level of research centres, institutes of excellence and National Academies of Sciences seems to be the only way to fully utilize this potential and establish a knowledge-based economy in the Black Sea region. The ICBSS believes that academic collaboration can contribute significantly to environmental sustainability in BSEC Member States, since it encourages the dissemination and exchange of knowledge and technological innovation, inter alia, in the field of environmental protection and eradication of the consequences of pollution.
Thus, the Centre has placed academic collaboration at the core of its activities. In April 2002, the ICBSS organized in Athens a Conference of Representatives of the National Academies of Sciences of the BSEC Member States. This Conference established the Council of the Presidents of the National Academies of Sciences, as a permanent forum for academic cooperation in the Black Sea region, and has given to the ICBSS the mandate to serve as the Secretariat of the Council. Therefore, the ICBSS has a central coordinating role in the field of academic cooperation and should be seen as part of a wider network of academic institutions.
It was mentioned above that a serious obstacle of environmental sustainability is the lack of coordination of environmental policies and regulations at the regional level. The ICBSS, in close collaboration with the Permanent Secretariat of the BSEC and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, has initiated a series of workshops on institutional renewal and good governance. The ultimate aim is to facilitate coordination among public institutions of BSEC Member State, including the coordination of Ministries responsible for the planning and implementation of environmental policy.
Both the BSEC and the ICBSS have recently been given a new mandate which leads to the expansion of their activities in the field of security. The ICBSS has set up an ad hoc Study Group to examine how the BSEC can contribute to strengthening security and stability in the region. The Study Group has adopted a broad definition of security, which encompasses - apart from threats stemming from local conflicts, terrorism, organized crime, illegal migration, poverty and social discrimination – the environmental and energy dimensions of security.
Lastly, the ICBSS intends to introduce and actively develop a “cultural dimension” in the agenda of the BSEC. Although it started its life as a strictly economic regional organization, the BSEC has today a much broader mandate including the promotion of cooperation among its Member States on issues of security and governance. This broader mandate necessitates the development of mutual understanding, solidarity and a sense of regional identity among the peoples of the Black Sea region. By promoting the “cultural dimension” of the BSEC, in order to strengthen cultural ties and eventually create a regional identity, the ICBSS will assist thus in the development of sensitivity for environmental issues at the regional level, which will eventually encourage the coordination of environmental policies and measures towards achieving environmental sustainability.